Did you know Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once teamed up with Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Few political issues in the United States can unite members of the progressive left and MAGA supporters, but the freedom of one jailed journalist brought two bitter rivals together back in November 2023. So what happened?

Left-wing political leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez penned her name alongside the diehard right-wing MAGA provocateur Marjorie Taylore Greene in a letter sent to President Joe Biden concerning the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

The two political polar opposites were among an eclectic collection of 14 other members of Congress who implored Biden to halt the extradition of journalist Julian Assange and end any prosecutorial proceedings against him for previous journalism that earned him the ire of the U.S. federal government

“It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources,” the letter to Biden stated according to a copy posted to Representative Thomas Masse’s Twitter account (now known as X) at the time account, “including documentary evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of the government.”

“The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalizing common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of the free press,” explained the letter, which urged Biden to bring Assange’s case to close in a timely manner. 

Assange was in prison in Britain at the time and fighting an American extradition order that would have seen the Australian national sent to the United States to face several charges, including some that fall under the Espionage Act according to The Guardian. 

The charges Assange faced relate to the publication of thousands of documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that his organization leaked, as well as diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks published between a period that spanned 2010 and 2011. 

Biden was warned by the letter’s signatories that his administration risked endangering its bilateral relationship with Australia if the United States continued to seek the extradition of Assange for the crimes the Washington had accused Assange of committing. 

“We are aware that the Assange case has been cited by officials of the People’s Republic of China to claim that the U.S. is ‘hypocritical’ when it comes to purported support for media freedom,” the letter explained. 

“We are also well aware that should the U.S. extradition and prosecution go forward, there is a significant risk that our bilateral relationship with Australia will be badly damaged,” the letter continued. 

In September 2023, a multi-party delegation of Australian Members of Parliament and other leading government figures traveled to the United States on a mission to gain support from American lawmakers to get the charges against Assange dropped. 

Assange is an Australian citizen and Mediaite noted at the time that the country’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, had expressed his frustration over President Biden’s refusal to end the American government’s continued prosecution of Assange. 

Interestingly, the letter to Biden urging an end to Assange’s prosecution had bipartisan support from a wide range of lawmakers who normally wouldn’t have little in common, including libertarian Republican Rand Paul and Democratic Progressive Caucus leader Pramila Jayapal. 

The Hill noted other signatories to the letter included: Jim McGovern, Rashid Talib, Eric Burson, Ilhan Omar, Paul Gozar, Ayanna Pressley, Matt Rosedale, Greg Cesar, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, and Jesús ‘Chuy’ García—which was a rather diverse group of America’s left and right political figures.

The letter’s signatories asked Biden to recall the actions of the Justice Department in 2013, when he was Vice President, noting that the government department decided not to move forward with prosecuting Assange for his journalistic practices at that time.

Moreover, the letter pointed out that the Espionage Act of 1917 was never intended to be used to punish journalists and whistleblowers who were trying to inform the public but rather to punish government employees who sold state secrets to enemy governments. 

“Deep concerns about this case have been repeatedly expressed by international media outlets, human rights and press freedom advocates, and Members of Congress, among others,” the letter noted. Whether or not Biden took the letter under consideration has never been known. But Assange did eventually see an end to his legal ordeal with the United States. 

In June 2024, Assange agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. prosecutors which saw him later plead guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act in exchange for time served, meaning he would not end up in U.S. custody, according to BBC News. The deal ended Assange's 14-year legal battle the British news organization noted.